Gwyndod Project

Lord Forbes of Newcastle Excerpts

Thursday 29th October 2026 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Curran (Lab)]

Again, that is a very serious question and a matter that demands close attention. I would need to look at the details of the particular island rather than give the noble Baroness guarantees, but I can assure her that the principle of local employment, ensuring local communities benefit from infrastructure development, is at the centre of what we do. We will keep it closely monitored and ensure there is a skills pipeline coming through, because a range of jobs are associated with nuclear projects, from the very highly skilled through to apprenticeships, which are vital. Overall, our commitment is to growth in every postcode: economic regeneration for all the UK. It was a model between the Plaid Cymru Government and the UK Government to develop this project. Michael Shanks was there last week with the Welsh Government Minister, and they were seen delivering together. That is a constructive approach. We have our differences, but on employment regeneration, we can work together.

[Lord Forbes of Newcastle (Lab)]

My Lords, while I welcome the employment opportunities expected from the Gwyndod project, does my noble friend the Minister agree that success should be measured not simply by the number of jobs created but by whether they are secure, high-paid, union-recognised jobs, filled by local people? What steps are the Government taking to ensure that this ambitious project creates a sustainable pipeline of engineers, technicians and skilled tradespeople, not just in north Wales but nationwide, supporting both this initiative and the UK’s future nuclear programme as a whole?

[Baroness Curran (Lab)]

That is another vital dimension of this. I should have said earlier that the nuclear skills hubs include the Wales hub. They are a UK-wide approach that brings employers, training providers and partners together to address local skills needs and strengthen that pipeline of talent needed to support the sector’s future. The plan is also to strengthen apprenticeships, graduate programmes, doctoral research and technical career paths, to develop the engineers, technicians and skilled workforce needed to support the UK’s current and future nuclear ambitions. We all know that, economically, that has a read-across to other industries and skills, as well as knock-on effects for suppliers. We want to release this money, to make it work twice and to make sure we have high-level, well-paid jobs that, of course, are unionised too.